** spoiler alert ** Best book I've read in a couple of years. I won't state the obvious about the main character (hint: his initials; see pg. 155 in the paperback) because I do think it diminishes the power of this novel to name him. What did I learn from this book? Memorable characters - not just our favorite monk, but Gloria and Jazzlyn's mother, too - loving in unexpected ways. I want stories to do this for me: show me the truth, teach me how to have hope. At the end, when Jasslyn wants to know if her mother was loved and Corrigan (the core)'s brother dismisses the idea: how wrong he was. She was fiercely loved, the way God loves us. So the investment banker who talks of loss and lives safely but unfruitfully in his childhood home, married to someone who may or may not have been involved in his brother's death - either he denies love or doesn't recognize it.
Ironic how the judge is so focused on the case of the tightrope walker that he misses the story of Jazzlyn and her mother, walking a different, daily tightrope. He would have missed it anyway; he missed a big chunk of his wife's story. Where is our attention?

As I read, I'm taking notes when I just can't help myself: and here are the notes I took on a scrap of paper found in my purse, from the end of the novel:
Jasslyne was looking for a history of love, and J.C. did love her mother, not with the what one character calls that human flow of desire, not as I experience love, but nonetheless love. It was love without desire, a love which was exquisitely more than her pimps, johns and own mother did. JC's love even released her mother's love towards Jasslyn: what a miracle.